Michael Chertoff,
appointed by President Bush to head the
Homeland Security Department, may have shielded from
criminal prosecution
a former client suspected by law
enforcement of having funneled millions of dollars
directly to Osama Bin Laden while
in charge of the U.S. Government’s 9.11 investigation.

Egyptian-born Dr. Magdy el-Amir, a
prominent New Jersey neurologist, was at the center of
terrorist intrigue in Jersey City.

El-Amir gave money to a conspirator in the 1993
World Trade Center Bombing Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman.

His
brother in Cairo was caught on tape attempting to
buy weapons from an American undercover agent for
Islamic militant groups.

Before being arrested in a terrorist deal involving
oil and heroin for guns and training, arms smuggler
Diaa Mohsen was paid at least $5,000 by one of Dr.
el Amir's companies, NBC’s Dateline reported.

And
his HMO was suspected by law enforcement of being
used to funnel money directly to Osama bin
laden.

Wire Transfers to "Unknown Parties"

Chertoff’s client "caused more than
$5.7 million to be paid by wire transfers to unknown
parties," said the lawsuit filed shortly before the
state took over his failing HMO.

News accounts about el-Amir’s legal
difficulties contain unanswered questions about undue
political influence and its effect on national
security.

For example, how did el-Amir, who only
the month before had been granted a state license to
operate an HMO, finagle a lucrative contract from the
state of New Jersey in 1995?

“Why was this doctor allowed to start a
health plan?” asked the October 25, 1999 issue of the
medical trade journal Medical Economics.

“How could this medical entrepreneur,
who had no experience running a managed-care or health
insurance company, receive a license for an HMO that
now provides care to 44,000 of New Jersey's most
vulnerable citizens?" asked The Bergen Record.
“Moreover, how could the state pay such a novice $ 6
million a month in taxpayers money to take on such a
responsibility?”

Why did Michael Chertoff even take the
case?

(continued below)

Skimming for Osama in New Jersey

Answers were slow in coming, until it was
revealed that at the same time el-Amir was pitching state
business he had begun making generous contributions to the
governing Republican party, donating nearly $ 18,000 to
various GOP candidates in 1996.

And a foreign intelligence report made
available to the Chairman of the House International
Committee alleged that an HMO owned by Dr. el Amir in New
Jersey was “funded by Ben Laden,” and that in turn Dr. el
Amir was skimming money from the HMO to fund “terrorist
activities.”’…

Stuff
like that doesn’t happen, does it? In New Jersey?

Barely three years after enrolling its
first patient, APPP lay in financial ruins, its network
doctors and hospitals were saddled with millions of
dollars in unpaid claims, and its founder had retained the
services of Michael Chertoff.

Did Chertoff know where the stolen money
was going?

"Frankly, we can't differentiate between
terrorism and organized crime and drug dealing," then-Asst
Attorney General Michael Chertoff told the Senate Banking
Committee looking into the terrorists’ money trail in the
aftermath of 9.11.

“These groups don't hold themselves
independently: They work with one another. Terrorists get
engaged in drug activity. They have relationships with
organized crime," Chertoff said.

Paging
Tony Soprano

Chertoff was undoubtedly worth every penny
Dr. Magdy paid him: though doctors and hospitals
calculated they were owed more than $45 million, Dr.
ElAmir faced no criminal charges.

When the MadCow Morning News first reported
on Mob and terrorist connections to "Magic Dutch Boy” Rudi
Dekkers and the covert operations conducted at the Venice
Airport, Michael Chertoff was running the official U.S.
investigation.

Dekkers remains free.

Magdy el-Amir continues to live and
practice in New Jersey.

Now that Chertoff has been tapped to keep
America safe, questions are sure to resurface about
whether he hadn’t himself been instrumental in helping to
make America dangerous.

Documents
in the el-Amir case remain under seal. Fortunately, the
following information does not. From the Bergen County
Record (New Jersey) on January 24, 1999:

“For a
while, Magdy Elamir looked like the Horatio Alger of
managed care in New Jersey.”

“An
Egyptian immigrant who parlayed a storefront medical
practice in Jersey City into a multimillion-dollar
health-care empire that served thousands of the state’s
poorest citizens, he lived in a Saddle River mansion and
contributed
generously to candidates for political office”…

“His
health maintenance organization, American Preferred
Provider Plan Inc., is about to be sold by state
regulators to salvage some money for doctors and hospitals
who calculate they’re owed more than $ 45 million.”
Link

In August
2002, NBC’s Dateline reported on the el-Amir case:

“Last
fall, DATELINE obtained information about this man, Magdy
el Amir. He’s a prominent doctor, a neurologist with a
practice in Jersey City. Born and educated in Egypt, he
moved to this country about 20 years ago and since then
has built a fortune”…

My brother likes tanks, is all.

“Well,
take a look at this document obtained by DATELINE last
fall. A foreign intelligence report that makes a startling
allegation about the doctor, that he has had financial
ties with Osama bin Laden for years. The report was given
to a senior member of Congress, Ben Gilman, back in 1998
when he was chairman of the House International Relations
Committee”…

“The
report alleges that an HMO owned by Dr. el Amir in New
Jersey was “funded by Ben Laden,” and that in turn Dr. el
Amir was skimming money from the HMO to fund “terrorist
activities.”’…

“Less
than a year after the congressman says the FBI received
the report, Dr. el Amir’s HMO was taken over by the state
of New Jersey… according to sources close to the
investigation, more than $15 million is unaccounted for.
Where did the money go? DATELINE has reviewed documents
that show at least some of it went into hard-to-trace
offshore bank accounts”…

“But the
intelligence report suggests one thing that he doesn’t
deny, that he has donated money to the mosque where the
blind sheik once preached, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is now
in prison for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing”…

“DATELINE
has found another reason why federal investigators might
want to pay close attention to Dr. el Amir and his family.
It’s something we learned when we interviewed Randy Glass,
the con man-turned-undercover operative who helped the
government break up an illegal weapons ring allegedly tied
to terrorist groups. It turns out that one of the people
recorded trying to arrange an arms deal with Randy Glass
was Dr. el Amir’s own brother, Mohamed, an engineer, also
a US citizen now living in Egypt. And just listen to what
he was interested in”…

“That
same intelligence report that talks about Dr. [Magdy] el
Amir also names his brother Mohamed as having ties to
Osama bin Laden.”
Link

Chertoff for the Defense

The
el-Amir’s appear to be intimately linked with Osama bin
Laden, making the following report from The Bergen Record
quite puzzling, dated December 11, 1998:

“A
Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered state Insurance
Commissioner… to take control of American Preferred
Provider Plan Inc., a health-maintenance organization for
Medicaid patients allegedly bled dry by its Saddle River
owner, neurologist Magdy Elamir”…

“But in a
hint of the gravity of his legal predicament, he was
represented in court by Michael Chertoff, the
former U.S. attorney in Newark and counsel to U.S. Sen.
Alfonse D’Amato’s Whitewater investigation.”
Link

Yes, the
soon-to-be Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff
represented a known bin Laden operative. Perhaps more
troubling, Chertoff also headed the U.S.’s investigation
into the September 11th attack. From the New Jersey Law
Journal, August 4, 2003:

“The
Sept. 11 investigation was supervised by Assistant
Attorney General Michael Chertoff, head of the U.S.
Criminal Justice Division, who is now a Third Circuit
judge.”
Link

More on
Chertoff from the New Yorker, November 5, 2001:

“Since
the September 11th terrorist attacks, Chertoff’s office
has become the funnel for what is probably the most
important criminal investigation in American history, as
prosecutors and F.B.I. investigators pour in to seek the
boss’s approval. What leads can we use from the search of
a hijacker’s car in Portland, Maine? Where do the
hijackers’ credit-card records lead?… For day-to-day
decisions, Chertoff has the last word”…

“Graduating from Harvard Law School, in 1978… he served as
a model for an intense and brilliant character in his
classmate Scott Turow’s book “One L,”…Link

Intense,
brilliant...corrupt?

Though
el-Amir’s HMO was known to be affiliated with bin Laden
since the mid-1990s,
Chertoff offers an alternate view of the HMO’s financial
statements. From The Record, December 18, 1998:

“Elamir’s
attorney, Michael Chertoff, the former U.S. attorney in
Newark, offered the doctor’s first in-depth defense to the
state charges Thursday, insisting that Elamir had not
misappropriated any funds from APPP [el-Amir’s HMO].”
Link

Also
from The Record, December 16, 1998:

“Michael
Chertoff, a former U.S. attorney who is Elamir’s attorney,
said the state’s papers don’t give the complete picture of
the company’s finances. “It’s a one-sided picture of
what’s going on,” he said.” It would be unfortunate if the
state’s approach is to find someone to punish, rather than
solve the problem.”’

“Chertoff
said Elamir would like to work with the state in its
effort to rehabilitate the HMO.”
Link

Chertoff’s comments on the case made The New York Times on
December 18, 1998:

"“Dr.
Elamir’s lawyer, Michael Chertoff, said that all
transactions were approved by state agencies and that his
client has done nothing improper.”
Link

The
Bergen Record printed a post-trial wrap-up of the case on
February 22, 2000:

“A year
after a Medicaid HMO accused of misusing state and federal
funds was dissolved by the state, its founder is still
enjoying a millionaire’s income while the hospitals and
doctors who allegedly were defrauded delay programs for
the poor and fight for restitution”…

“APPP’s
founder, Saddle River neurologist Magdy Elamir, continues
to practice medicine in a Jersey City storefront office
and lives in a $ 1.8 million mansion in one of Bergen
County’s toniest suburbs, court records show. His car
leases alone total $ 65,000 per year, the records show.”

“The
Egyptian immigrant also operates a chain of MRI facilities
in Newark, Irvington, and Paterson, a limousine company,
and a medical management company. Combined with his
medical practice, his income totals more than $ 18,000
weekly, nearly $ 1 million a year, records show.”

A Republican voice for the
downtrodden

‘“He’s
still in good spirits,” said Michael Chertoff, the former
U.S. attorney in Newark whom Elamir hired as his defense
lawyer.”

“Public
records in the civil case contain no reference to a
criminal investigation, but court officials said some
documents in the case were under seal. The state Attorney
General’s Office would neither confirm nor deny an
investigation. The state’s Medicaid fraud division is not
involved in the case, a Medicaid spokesman said”…

“Elamir’s
property and bank accounts are worth more than $ 8.8
million, according to his financial statement, but
mortgages and other liens reduce his net worth to $
760,000”...
Link

Why would
New Jersey’s Top Attorney Michael Chertoff represent a
person of el-Amir’s relatively modest financial position?
Though comfortable, el-Amir had failed to reach
millionaire status. Not exactly Chertoff’s typical
clientele, as reported by The Bergen Record on June 19,
2000:

“New
Jersey is home to about 65,000 lawyers, some of whom are
quite good at what they do. But if the state had a First
Lawyer, or a Lawyer Laureate, it just might be Michael
Chertoff”…

“His
counsel is sought by public corporations, politicians,
government agencies, and high-profile defendants”…

“Columbia/HCA, the health-care consortium… is the
ninth-largest employer in the United States… As the lead
attorney for Columbia, Chertoff negotiated a partial
settlement of the case in May for about $ 745 million”…

“When he
entered private practice, Chertoff said he would not
represent drug dealers and mobsters, preferring to work
for “decent people.”’
Link